


Dancing With Me

by QuickSilverFox3



Series: Whumptober 2020 [10]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Bathing/Washing, Blood and Injury, Chases, Deliberate Injury, Drabble Collection, F/F, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Injury Recovery, M/M, Missing Scene, Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani Friendship, Nile Freeman Needs a Hug, Whump, Whumptober 2020, and she gets one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27004141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3
Summary: Andy had held millennia before her final death, and Booker had spent those precious weeks drinking himself into the gutter to try and forget his betrayal. Now he was dying.[No 10. THEY LOOK SO PRETTY WHEN THEY BLEED Blood Loss | Internal Bleeding | Trail of Blood]
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Booker | Sebastien le Livre, Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Nile Freeman, Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nile Freeman & Quynh | Noriko
Series: Whumptober 2020 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947016
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Dancing With Me

Joe ran through the streets of the small town they were hiding in, feet bare and bleeding. Rocks and broken glass cut the soles of his feet, the wounds healed by the next step, but leaving a glistening trail of blood.

He could only hope it was enough. 

Nile had returned from the market with news of black-suited soldiers. Andy and Nicky had been pressed to the windows desperate to escape their long confinement, so would have drawn too much attention. So it was down to Joe.

His chest burned as he continued running, hearing the distant baying of dogs.

* * *

Would they even come and look for her, after everything she had done?

It was a black thought, freezing Quynh in place for the precious few seconds for the van to careen around a corner. She swore—a new string that Nile has taught her, all drawling vowels and sharp constants—and fastened the stub of her remaining hand around the shard of broken metal.

Blood washed away, breadcrumbs were eaten by birds, but a trail of severed fingers worked the best. 

Pain bloomed, white hot and sticky, and her finger fell to the rain soaked pavement, another breadcrumb in her trail.

* * *

Booker pressed bloody fingers into the wall, stumbling forward over broken glass that gleamed like fallen stars. 

Andy’s funeral was yesterday and he hid tear stained cheeks and bruised eyes behind heavy sunglasses. He saw the others watching him, knew they would come and find him.

But would they find him in time?

Andy had held millennia before her final death, and Booker had spent those precious weeks drinking himself into the gutter to try and forget his betrayal. Now he was dying.

He left behind another bloody handprint, pressing forward as his bones ached to collapse into a bed.

* * *

“It never gets any easier,” Joe murmured, sitting down to Nile and letting her curl up into his side. She groaned, a weak pitiful sound, and Joe gently kissed her forehead, noting the chill.

“How long am I going to feel like this?” Nile grumbled, burrowing deeper into Nicky’s hoodie, one arm tied up into a knot. as her remaining arm swatted blindly in the direction of the TV remote.

“At least a couple of days longer. We’re immortal, but regrowing a limb takes time.”

Nile groaned louder, and Joe chuckled, letting the laughter from the TV wash over them.

* * *

The world span slowly around her, thoughts slow and slipping from her grasp as soon as Andy tried to grasp them. Everything was cold. Shudders tore through her, a desperate howling scream in a voice that wasn’t her own filling her ears, before blinding, blistering pain overwhelmed her senses. 

“Stop it!” Quynh screamed, and Andy managed to open an eye to see her, chained to the wall, hair wild and beautiful. “You’re going to kill her again.”

Andy saw the blood, her blood, pooling on the floor below her, before the white-hot metal pressed into her wounds, burning it closed.

* * *

Booker woke to the stinging pain of Andy’s slap, momentarily wiping out the dull ache burning through his stomach, and the intense knowledge that everything had gone wrong.

Blood loss made his thoughts slow, fingers uncoordinated as Andy armed herself, and stalked outside. Nile watched, eyes wide and staring, and he grinned at her, even as his heart stuttered in his chest.

His careful plan lay in tatters, Joe and Nicky were missing. He had to ignore the guilt he felt at that, they had each other, they would be fine. He closed his eyes, and felt himself heal, painfully.

* * *

“I hate shrapnel,” Nicky complained, words slightly muffled as he spat out another twisted chunk of metal. 

Joe kissed him, ignoring Nicky’s muffled noise of protest about the blood still slowly filling his mouth, heavy and iron on Joe’s tongue. 

“I hate seeing you in pain,” he murmured, tracing a featherlight touch across the bruises blooming on Nicky’s bare torso as if his touch could wash them away.

“I would suffer through any pain to keep you safe,” Nicky murmured, squeezing Joe’s hand tightly, kissing his knuckles before pausing to cough up another piece of twisted metal, stained dark red.

* * *

Quynh scowled at the paper, her hands covered in ink which was smudged across the paper and the table. Her head hurt, a dull pounding ache, and all she wanted to do was to curl up and sleep.

“Feeling okay?” Andy came up behind her, movements as silently as always, and wrapped her arms around Quynh’s chest, kissing the crook of her neck.

“I can’t get this right,” Quynh murmured back, pressing her hand into her eyes to try and wipe away the strange dancing spots in front of her vision.

“Quynh?” Andy sounded alarmed, but the world went black.

* * *

Joe knew he was bleeding into his limb. Fresh sparks of pain flashed down deadened nerves as he raised the sword to block another blow. 

He had to lean further to swing his arm, the motion restricted as quickly as his wounds healed, they were cut into him again.

His opponent advanced further, face hidden behind the dented helmet, sword a gleaming blur with the edge stained dark with blood. His feet slipped on the sand, disturbed by the steps of a thousand dying men, and the sword plunged through his chest, the eyes of his killer unfamiliar to him.

* * *

“You look beautiful.”

Nicolo froze, waterskin held over his head, and turned to narrow his eyes at the other man. He was met with a wide shameless grin before the other man deliberately covered his eyes. 

Nicolo waited a moment and swore at the other when he peeked through cracked fingers, unable to keep the flush from rising in his cheeks and traveling over his chest. He let the water cascade over him, wash away the blood and dirt of their previous days travelling. It wouldn’t wash away the sin of his thoughts, but he could try and ignore them.

**Author's Note:**

> [ My Tumblr!](https://inkformyblood.tumblr.com) Requests are always welcome!


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